Americans' satisfaction with government lowest since 1971

With the U.S. government shutdown lingering, Americans' satisfaction with the government has dipped to the lowest point since 1971, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday. Only 18 percent of Americans are satisfied with the way the nation is being governed, down 14 percentage points from last month before the partial government shutdown began. This was the lowest rating of the U.S. government since Gallup began taking such survey in 1971. The Oct. 3-6 poll, conducted in the first week of the government shutdown, found that Democrats are more likely satisfied with the government (28 percent) than are Republicans (8 percent) and independents (15 percent), the poll showed. The previous lowest rating of the U.S. government was 19 percent in September 2011, just after the U.S. government reached a last-minute agreement with Congress on raising the nation's debt ceiling. This poll was the latest in a series of reports underscoring the negative impact the shutdown is having on Americans' attitudes toward their government, Gallup said. Another poll released Wednesday by the Gallup showed that the dysfunctional government became the top concern for Americans, as 33 percent of them expressed their disappointment with the government shutdown. This is the highest percentage of Gallup's trend since 1939. Economy was the second concern for Americans with 19-percentage of dissatisfaction, followed by unemployment (12 percent), the deficit (12 percent) and healthcare (12 percent), it found. The partial U.S. government shutdown resulted from the Congress ' failure to pass a stopgap budget bill to fund the government for fiscal 2014 before the Sept. 30 deadline, due to the Republicans' insistence on binding the budget with provisions to defund or delay the controversial Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, which became effective since Oct. 1.